“You are, in fact, a mashup of what you let into your life.”

~Austin Kleon, Author, Steal Like an Artist

What word would you use to describe yourself?  Better yet, what words do you think other people would use to describe you?  Would they use words like kind, intelligent, positive, thoughtful, compassionate, focused, or would they choose less flattering words?

Regardless of the words chosen, the attributes others see in us (and the ones we see in ourselves) are all the result of what we have allowed into our life.

So what are these inputs we’re allowing into our lives that have such a significant impact?  We’ll they can be anything from the people we hang out with to the books we read.  From the movies, TV and digital content we consume to the environment/culture we experience at home, work, and the places we frequent.   These inputs all have an impact, and the more of something we allow in, the bigger the impact it has.

What I think is cool is that we get to choose what we allow in!  If we currently like what we are (what we’ve become) we should continue allowing in those inputs that brought us to this point.  If however, there are certain attributes or behaviors we’d like to eliminate or change, we simply need to remove those negative inputs that brought us to where we are and replace them with new inputs that will take us where we want to go.

Is there any area in your life that you’d like to change?  If so, examine the inputs that brought you there and stop allowing them into your life.  Then start allowing new inputs that will cause you to create the attribute or behavior you desire.

It’s simply a matter of being intentional about what you let in.

We’ve all heard the phrase that “life is a journey”. While the expression may seem over used, I think that it is no less accurate. Life is indeed a journey, full of exciting destinations, pleasant surprises, and unexpected (and not always pleasant) turns of events. Much like a journey, life is certainly not static. It is an exciting, dynamic and ever-changing ride.

Here’s a question regarding your journey through life: Who are you traveling with?

Have you ever thought about the people you’re doing life with as your traveling companions? I’ve been thinking about that this past week. Good traveling companions make good times even better. They also have a way of making difficult times less challenging, more bearable, and more hopeful, through their positive attitude, encouragement, or presence.

Our traveling companions can range from spouses and significant others to family members (like my sister), to friends, co-workers, brothers and sisters in faith, Jesus, or anyone who enhances our journey through life.

I believe it’s important to surround ourselves with good traveling companions as we go through life. I also think it is equally important to BE good traveling companions to those travel with us.

We’re fortunate that we have a great deal of choice regarding who our traveling companions are, and what kind of traveling companion we will be for others. Let’s seek to enhance our journey by choosing, and being, traveling companions people would like to have.

Here’s the worst kept secret in the whole world: Life is full of unexpected challenges. A single phone call or event can quickly change the course of our life. When the storms come, we need something to cling to that gives us hope, strength, and courage to face them. What we need is an anchor.

Our anchor is what gives us stability and calm in the midst of a storm. An anchor could anything from a person to a belief to art, or a number of other things. The list of potential anchors is endless.

Without an anchor to provide stability during a storm, we can easily feel overwhelmed and hopeless. This can be a great cause of fear and stress because in the midst of our storm we have nothing solid to hold on to. Nothing solid to give us hope. We are then thrown about by circumstance and emotion, which can be an unpleasant ride.

Do you know what your anchor is? Do you have an anchor ready for the storms that will ultimately arrive?

My anchor is Jesus. When a storm comes, and it recently has, Jesus is the anchor I cling to for tomorrow’s hope and today’s strength. For me, Jesus has proven a faithful and solid anchor through storms I’ve already faced.   Does that mean that with Jesus every storm just magically goes away? Hardly! What it does mean that I’m not alone and that I can face the storm knowing that Jesus is my anchor and that he’ll see me through.

What will you cling to during life’s next storm? Again, do you know what your anchor is?

If you don’t, I’d urge you to consider Jesus. A more solid anchor you will not find.

Imagine you went to the doctor for a routine checkup and it was determined that you had cancer. Now consider how you’d like to receive this news from the doctor? Which delivery would you prefer?

• “You have cancer.”
• “The lab results came back showing some cancer cells.”

While some people would prefer the directness of the 1^st delivery, to me this would feel like a punch in the gut. Those 3 words would leave me feeling overwhelmed, incapacitate, and hopeless. Personally, I like the 2^nd delivery because it doesn’t cause my thinking to instantly shut down to process what I’ve been told. While the news is still shocking, it feels more like a fire cracker going off versus a bomb.

Now I’m not saying that the second response is the better of the 2 (for me it is), but I am saying that the words we use matter in how we communicate with each other. Our words do more than just convey information. They demonstrate our caring, compassion, and concern for the other person, or even (perhaps unintentionally) a lack of it.

I’m reminded that our words have an impact others. And while there are many words we can use to communicate a point, for me, I want to ensure that the impact of my words on others is positive.

This is a great time of year!  While Christmas and New Year are winding down, there’s another aspect of late December that really gets me excited.  That is the fact that the days are starting to get longer.

After the winter solstice and a hardy farewell to the holidays, I start thinking ahead to the warmer and sunnier days of spring and summer that are just around the corner. My mind is increasingly filled with thoughts of hiking, fly fishing, picking berries, and just being outside enjoying warmer brighter days.

There’s something about being outside in a naturally scenic place on a sunny day that I find invigorating.  I spend most of my work week indoors, so I’m excited for any opportunity to break out of the climate-controlled environment and breathe some fresh air.  I always feel charged up after enjoying a sunny day outside.

One of my goals for the upcoming year is to spend more time outside.  In 2018 I took far fewer hiking and fishing trips than I would have liked, and I could tell a difference.  For me, it’s much easier to enjoy (or at least tolerate) the dark dreary winters of the Pacific Northwest if I’ve spend quality time outside the previous spring summer and fall.

What charges you up?  Perhaps it’s time outside for you as well, or maybe it’s something totally different.  Whatever it is, make sure you’re setting aside time for it versus just assuming it’s going to happen.

My wife has been a task-closing machine this past week.  We’ve had a handful of tasks that needed to get completed, but we just hadn’t gotten to them.  One by one she set her sights on these tasks and took action to close them.  I was amazed to learn how many tasks she was able to complete in a relatively short time.

One thing that stood out from watching her was that our biggest barrier to getting stuff done, or causing something we want to happen in our life, is our own failure to take action to bring it about.  Sure, we all want things to happen or task to get done, but “wanting” alone will not make it happen.  Taking action is the secret ingredient to completing tasks, achieving goals, and successfully bringing about change.

Is there anything in your life you want to do, start, or complete?  If so, I encourage you to follow my wife’s lead and take action to make it happen.  And if you make taking action a habit, you’ll likely see positive life changing results.

I’ve had a couple of instances recently where I should have paid attention to what I was saying to myself.  Here’s an example …

I love to pick blueberries when they’re in season in Oregon, which they are now.  Oregon blueberries are so flavorful and far superior to anything I can get in the store.  My favorite blueberry variety is Legacy, and since they were ready to pick I headed out to my favorite blueberry farm.

When I showed up and told the farm owner that I was there to pick some Legacies, he showed me on the map where they’d be.  He also let me know that I’d have to work for them because his crew had recently picked in that area.  That sounded good to me, so I headed out toward my destination.

Once I got where I thought I was supposed to be, I eagerly started picking.  After a couple of minutes I thought to myself, “There seem to be a lot of berries on these bushes for being recently picked.”  After a few more minutes of picking I thought, “These Legacies seem to be smaller than the ones I’ve picked before.”   Undeterred by these two thoughts, I kept picking until my bucket was full.

When I went to pay for the berries I picked, the owner looked down at my bucked with a perplexed look on his face and said, “You know these are Jerseys and not Legacies, right?”

Arrrrgh!!  It seems I got the instructions where to pick mixed up and picked on the wrong row.  While the Jerseys were still delicious, they were not the Legacies I was looking forward to.

What’s interesting is that I seemed to be trying to tell myself that I was in the wrong place, yet I was not listening to myself.  Looking back, I should have responded to my thoughts with one or both of the following:

• “Yeah, these are too small to be Legacies.”
• “Yeah, there are way too many berries on these bushes to have already been picked.”

Instead, I just ignored my own warnings.  Fortunately, the stakes were pretty low, so no real harm was done.  Still, I didn’t get the result was after because I didn’t pay attention to my own prompting.

Has this ever happened to you?  Have you ever ignored your own prompting when oy shouldn’t have?  If so, let’s make an effort to begin paying attention to the promptings and warnings we’re communicating to ourselves.  We just might know what we’re talking about.

“Fortune Favors the Bold”

I really love this saying! To me it implies that good things are just waiting for those who decide to go after them.

The easiest thing to do is to sit around and wait for something to happen. While this requires minimal effort from us, it also yields minimal results.  Think about it, how often did something great happen to you as a result of simply sitting around and doing nothing?  I can’t think of anything significant in my life that was a direct result of my own inactivity.  Any worthwhile achievement has required a degree of boldness to start, and progress, down the path to where I wanted to go.

I also see fortune as far more than just money. To me, fortune can include things like:

• Rich and varied life experiences
• Solid relationships
• Worthwhile achievements
• Great opportunities
• A fulfilling life

There is so much good fortune out there just waiting for us to be bold enough to begin moving toward it. The boldest thing we can do is take the first step toward the fortune we seek, followed by the next step, and the next step, and the step after that.  Because fortunes are attained one bold step at a time.

Now go live boldly today!

“When I’ve heard all I need to make a decision, I don’t take a vote.  I make a decision.”

~Ronald Reagan

In every decision making process there comes a time when enough information has been collected, enough opinions have been gathered, and enough discussions have taken place.  This is the point when it’s time to make a decision.

Yet so often we want to gather more information or simply wait before actually deciding.  Sure, we can give ourselves plenty of good reasons why we don’t make a decision, but I think all those reasons likely boil down to fear.  Maybe it’s fear of failing, of making the wrong choice, or of looking foolish in front of others. Whatever the motivation, fear can cripple our ability to make decisions.

One thought that always helps me make a decision in the face of fear, is that if I make the wrong decision, I can always change course.

The large majority of the decisions we face aren’t life and death.  As we’re making decisions to live our best lives, we can always, and should always, make course corrections in the wake of our previous decisions.

Instead of being fearful about decisions, let’s remember that we should:

• Make decisions when we have what we need to do so
• Assess how we’re doing
• Decide what changes we need to make
• Repeat this process throughout our lives

Let’s not squander the blessings we have in our freedom to make decisions.  Nor should we relinquish that freedom by allowing someone else to make our decisions for us.  Instead, when we have all we need to make a decision, let’s do so with the confidence that we can always adjust as needed.